Babcock hopes he'll add spark
October 13, 2005

BY HELENE ST. JAMES
FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- After practicing some 45 minutes with a couple of longtime teammates, Red Wings captain Steve Yzerman spent nearly the same time going over specifications for his stick Wednesday afternoon.
Those signs, compounded with all the ones from the previous few days, all point to one thing: the return of Yzerman. And so it shall be tonight, barring any last-second discomfort.

Yzerman hasn't played since he was 38, since May 1, 2004, when an errant puck demolished the area around his left eye. He entered training camp Sept. 12 in fine health only to be felled by a groin injury, which kept him out of the first four games.

But tonight, when the Wings take on the Los Angeles Kings, Yzerman expects to be in the lineup, on a line with center Kris Draper and Kirk Maltby.

"I played with them a fair bit two years ago; I enjoy playing with them," Yzerman said. "They both have good speed and they've kind of opened their game up a little bit more -- they're good all-around players.

"For me at this stage, now, I've got to play really well to keep up and make sure I'm playing well enough to deserve to be on that line."

Yzerman's return bumps Mark Mowers from the lineup and drops Johan Franzen to the fourth line, where he'll center Daniel Cleary and Mikael Samuelsson. In addition to those changes, Babcock also tinkered with his two offensive lines, putting Pavel Datsyuk with Henrik Zetterberg and Tomas Holmstrom, and reuniting the Brendan Shanahan-Robert Lang-Jason Williams line that looked so good during the exhibition season but was broken up by the time the regular season started.

"What happened was they came out one night and we were on the power play all night, and I didn't have them on the same power play units and I liked our other lines better," Babcock said. "It just worked out that way and I went with that.

"So now I'm going to try it the other way."

On the subject of special teams, Babcock indicated Yzerman wouldn't play any time on either power plays or penalty kills at least to start. To start, Babcock really would like to see Yzerman inject the third line with a dash of offense.

"If you have one guy who can make a bit of a penetrating pass, then we'd have three lines that generate offense," he said. "That's what we're hoping for."

Both Draper and Maltby are looking for their first points, but not for lack of trying.

"They have more scoring chances than anybody else, they're just a little snake-bitten," Babcock said. "The way I look at that is, they're getting their chances, it'll go, and then it'll just come for them."

As for what contributions Yzerman can make this season, it'll largely depend on his health. Two years ago there was talk of him sitting out the second game of back-to-back nights, of skipping practices. He played 75 games. Now he's 40, and again the amount of games will depend on how fit he feels.

"I don't really have a specific goal other than for whatever role I have, to be productive in it," Yzerman said. "I'm not looking for any days off, or games off, or to be rested. I want to be productive."